A Modern Kitchen

Ever imagine what a modern kitchen should look like and feel like? We are working on this modern European style kitchen for a villa in Setia Ecopark.

The cost for this set is RM36,600 with full accessories and comes with Silestone table top.

Depending on choice of materials, the cabinet cost will change accordingly as follows :

1)  Laminates  -  RM12,563

2)  Pigment Matt  -  RM14,862

3)  Finoline Laminates  -  RM17,906

4)  High Gloss Pigment  -  RM19,944

5)  Venato Veneer  -  RM21,908

6)  Crystal Gloss, Oak timber  -  RM22,181

7)  Veneer Finoline  -  RM25,155

8)  High Gloss Black  -  RM29,255

Design for Setia Ecopark

The interiors of this bungalow in Setia Ecopark has been purposely kept modern, simple and for easy maintenance for the busy houseowners. The colours proposed are kept neutral so that this look will outlast colour trends.

The Living Room

Ground Floor Bar

First Floor Family Area

 

First Floor Dining Area

First Floor Dry Kitchen

First Floor Wet Kitchen

Second Floor Master Bedroom

Third Floor Children's Rooms

Total cost of project : RM279,700.

5 Things to Consider Before Buying Your First Home

There is great temptation to buy your first home property. This is especially true once you start working and are earning a decent income. For most of us, buying a house could be the single largest investment in our life. Hence there are few things to consider before buying your first home to avoid any regret in future.

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1) Access your need

Firstly, let’s begin with where you are staying now.
If you are working and currently staying with your parents… it is good to delay the purchase of your first property until you have saved a significant down payment. When you take a smaller loan on your first home, it will greatly reduce your monthly commitment and therefore will free up your monthly cash flow for other usage.
If you are staying in a rented house now… then you could start thinking about buying your first home. Every month you are paying rental to your landlord anyway. Why not use that same amount of money to start paying for your own home's monthly installments? As for the down payment, you can source from your own savings or seek financial assistance from your parents. This will help to reduce the burden initially.

2) Aim for a home that you can afford

Let’s look at financing part. Assess your lifestyle. How much is your monthly income? How much income do you have left at the end of month? Acknowledging this will help you understand what your budget is when buying a home. Of course, you must also take into consideration the amount of down payment you can afford.

3) Space it out

Next, we will look at factors determining the size of your first home. Think about how the new home space will be used and whether it will fit your lifestyle now and in the future. Will you be staying alone? If yes, perhaps a studio unit or small condominium is enough. Or will you have a life partner with you two years down the road and start a family with children? Then you may want to decide on a bigger home to accommodate expanding family. Always remember that bigger space means more furniture plus decor and cost more.


4) Location

Follow property mantra: location, location, location! Will you be attached with the current employment in the next 5 years? If you are unsure, it makes better sense to decide on a piece of real estate which is centrally located. This first home can eventually be converted into an investment when and if you were to change jobs and move to different location later.

5) 1st hand or 2nd hand

Next, we look at buying a new project or secondary market. Should you buy a second hand house or buy a new house directly from the developer? If time is not of essence, buying from the developer has its advantage. There is room for price appreciation, which will contribute for capital gain for you. The risky part of buying a house under construction lies in the reliability of developer in handing over homes within stipulated time and good workmanship. However, if you are looking to move in as soon as you can, then buying from the secondary market makes more sense. You can check and evaluate for yourself if you like the neighborhood and surrounding amenities.

Nothing is perfect and no matter how many precautions you take before buying a home, there will always be one or two surprises. However, don’t be despair. Don’t let these few initial bumps ruin your first house-buying experience.
I remember reading this somewhere - A house is just a house. What matters is the people inside which make it special.
Happy house hunting!

" This is a guest post contributed by Ann Khee from Property Home Interior. If you are looking for more property hints and tips, check out Ann Khee's blog on Property News. "

Thank You For Your Trust

To my dear customers and BNI business partners, I would like to say "THANK YOU" for placing your trust in me and thus helping us to win the Nationwide Best Performance Branch Award for the financial year ended June 2011.

And to all my team members at Signature Subang ( Lim, Tim, Aliaa, DD, Fiza, Banu and Ricky ), I would like to thank all of you too for unselfishly giving your best to build each other up and that's what makes all of you special - living up to the Signature motto " Passion For Better Ways ".

This has been a very humbling experience for me, because I know I would not have achieved this much with my own effort. The impossible happens because I am blessed enough to have a great team!

My pledge for the coming year is to guide the whole of my sales team to achieve the Nagoya incentive! It makes me so proud to have a very special and capable team in our Subang family.

Using a Grey Scheme : Casa Indah II

This young loving couple wanted a cozy fuss-free abode, a haven to return to after long working hours. Indeed modern working couples certainly do not want to waste too much time cleaning up when things can be kept simple, neat and yet look good.


Designed by Tim, the concept had to be modern using grey as the couple's favourite colour - emphasising on various grey tones and yet not to end up looking stark cold and unfriendly.



The developer planned this area to be a dining area. However, the owners were receptive to the idea of combining the dining function into the dry kitchen peninsular. This new urban concept is space saving and functional. Not only does the dry kitchen look good enough to dine in, but the lady-owner gets extra storage compared to the other option if they had just put in a normal dining table.


And modern top quality Acrylic tops like this LG set doesn't stain, so there's no worry about yellow stains of curry or kunyit. Another plus point is that higher range tops are homogeneous, therefore it can be repolished again in a few years time.

Notice that the large decorative glass makes the whole area "open up", and I especially want to highlight that the owners have cleverly placed a painting on the opposite side of the wall so that the reflection is caught in the mirror. I also want to highlight that lady-owner had a good sense of colour to choose green to bring "life" to the cold greys. Notice the greens from the placemats, the glass decorative sink, the poster, the glass bottles and bits of green appearing in other parts of the room.

Tips :

1) Mirrors put everything into focus - If placed in front of beautiful features like pendant lights or a potted plant or a nice scene, the beauty is magnified twice. If wrongly placed in front of toilet doors or stairs or a dark walkway, the eyesore again is magnified.

2) Choosing an outstanding focal colour - While we always plan all the colours to blend in harmoniously, too much colours and shades of the same family can be overly bland or boring. Choose a shade on the opposite of the colour wheel to bring some zing and excitement to the eyes. In this example of a grey environment, focus colours can be chilli red, or sunkist orange or leaf green as the owners have succesfully used here.

In every house I go to, I look for nick nacks such as this! This is what differentiates a home from a showroom - personal collections that define your personality.

Tim and I are just amazed with this EXTREMELY NEAT walk-in wardrobe! The users must be extremely disciplined!

Wardrobe tip :

While an open walk-in wardrobe looks good in a showroom, do you realise that they look good in showroom because the displayed clothes are all in one colour and all are of equal size. Without the discipline to keep things neat, an open wardrobe is not such a good idea.

The Wet Kitchen uses Pigment Matt Graphite with Magic Glass and LG acrylic top, while the Dry Kitchen uses Crystal Gloss and LG acrylic top. Total cost is around RM30,000. The wardrobe comes FREE during June 2010 promotion.

Our goal at the end of every project is to have customers who end up a friends! Here are Wei Ling, our designer Tim and Freddie!



“ After comparing your price with other IDs, I find the quotation reasonable, in terms of the good quality material, super workmanship and of course the great design! We selected Meridian because of great recommendation from our friends and also because of the very good customer service and professionalism.

We have used other contractors before but we had a lot of misunderstandings and some disappointments. Meridian has been a great help and there is lesser hassle and worry-free. We are very happy with our engagement of Meridian.

We would absolutely recommend Meridian to our friends and family! In one word, Meridian is Professional! “


Chin Wei Ling
IT Business Systems Manager
DELL Global Business Centre

An English Cottage in Puchong

Would you believe there's a small English cottage on the outskirts of Puchong? I could almost imagine smoke coming out from the chimney!

The owners built this weekend resort home for family members and invited friends to unwind on weekends.





Notice the snooker and game area built beside the main cottage.



This tiny "cottage" is built beside the main building. It's the Coffee Room - complete with a set of sofa for guests to relax in after a heavy dinner.






A large pond overlooks the main entrance to the cottage.



Lim accompanying Desmond during touch up on accessories.


This small kitchen is designed with Milano Oak Burnt White series to keep up with the English theme. Made with imported solid oak wood, the beautiful natural oak grain is tinted with an almost white paint finish, allowing the grain to be seen yet not too obvious. This set is our most popular rustic country style series.


This Milano Solid Oak set inclusive of imported American Corian top costs RM25,108.00
The Ariston electrical appliances cost RM7,645.00

This SGO leaded glass folding doors open up to the Prayer Room.

I just love this clock! It completes the whole country feel of the kitchen.

The lady owner of this house has spent many hours looking for loose furnitures and soft furnishings that complete the last touches of this lovely cottage.

My 2 days of work being based in this house during the kitchen installation was really a joy. While the installers were going about their work, I continued my paperwork overlooking the large serene pond with chirping birds all around. That's serenity!

This plaque summarizes what a home is all about : " A HOUSE IS MADE OF BRICKS AND BEAMS. A HOME IS MADE OF LOVE AND DREAMS ".